Research On The Faith In Shandong Wenchang In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Folk belief is characterized by worship of God,and its production and development are strictly related to the development of human civilization.In China,worship of God is a long-standing belief and have originated since the birth of civilization.Furthermore,during the social development and historical progress,worship of God was given more new content.This process also reflects the social vicissitude.Therefore,fork belief with the worship of God at its core is a significant part of investigating the development process of human civilization.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,with the further improvement,contents and procedures of the imperial examination system had been fixed and played a significant impact on all aspects of society.Passing the imperial examinations became the primary way for literati to enter their political careers and realize their ambitions.As the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius and the origin of the Confucian culture,Shandong has the tradition of improving literature since ancient times.In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the Shandong government and local literati attached importance to improve local culture and individual literary accomplishment,which reflected in the folk belief was peoples' highly attention of consecrating Wenchang Dijun.According to the Chinese folk beliefs,Wenchang Dijun,who was in charge of the military and bureaucracy,was also a favorite god for punishing evil and promoting moral education,thus widely respected by rulers,scholars,and civilians.This article takes the faith of Wenchang in Shandong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties as the starting point to study the background of its rise,the construction of its temples,the characteristics of related ritual activities,and its impact on civil society.In the first chapter,we present the development of the faith of Wenchang before the Ming Dynasty.This chapter focuses on sorting out the origins of the Wenchang belief.Through an examination of the rituals of Wenchang Dijun in the past,we have discovered that the faith originated from the beliefs of the stars.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties,under the impetus of the rulers,the Wenchang belief gradually integrated with the Zitong belief in Sichuan.This integration was accelerated under the advocation of the educated class during the Song Dynasty.The character of Wenchang Dijun was finally depicted in Taoism Book during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In the second chapter,we present the background of the rise of Wenchang belief in Shandong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.This chapter examines the vicissitude of the Wenchang belief in the national memorial code and combines the social functions of the Wenchang Dijun's monarchs with texts and missionaries to analyze the actual needs of the literati in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Hence,we point out the inevitability of the rise of Wenchang belief in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In the third chapter,we analyze the historical records of the construction of the Wenchang Temple in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and create the temporal and spatial distribution.The distribution was mainly affected by the formulation of the national code of the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the development level of the local economy and the cultural atmosphere.At the same time,we also investigate and analyze the architectural style of the Wenchang Temple in Shandong Province and related etiquette and customs of the worship ceremony of Wenchang Dijun.In the fourth chapter,we conclude the social influence of the faith of Wenchang in Shandong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.This chapter focuses on investigating the inscriptions on the construction of Wenchang Temple in Shandong during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.By analyzing the motives of the constructors and combining the texts of the Taoist books,it is worth pointing out that the Wenchang belief played an active role in promoting the culture level,education and moral code.Therefore,Wenchang belief received full attention from all walks of life.Based on different value orientations,people from different sectors of the society had different opinions on their evaluation.However,due to the influence of the ritual tradition,the majority of the civil society had a relatively tolerant attitude towards this belief.